Technique for accessing an item of interest within a stored representation of data

• US 6,243,708 B1
• Filed: 12/03/1998
• Issued: 06/05/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Eureka Database Solutions, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Kovalcin, David E., Eberman, Brian, Sokolov, Michael, deVries, Arjen P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Amsbury, Wayne
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAVAN, THU THAO
• Application Number:
  US09/204,283
• Time in Patent Office: 915 Days
• Field of Search: 707/103, 707/102, 707/530, 707/4, 707/512, 709/205, 709/217, 364/926, 364/927, 704/8, 370/271, 345/507, 345/331
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7343 Query language or query format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/738 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/914 Video
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/955 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/961 Associative
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A method for locating a particularly relevant position within a multimedia steam includes identifying a multimedia stream based upon a query. The locations relevant to the query within the multimedia stream are also identified. The relevance of each of the identified locations is ranked and a particularly relevant one of the identified locations within the multimedia stream is determined based upon the ranking.

Claims

1. A method for locating a particularly relevant position within a multimedia stream comprising the steps of;

identifying a multimedia stream based upon a query;

identifying locations relevant to the query within the multimedia stream;

ranking the relevance of each of the identified locations; and

determining a particularly relevant one of the identified locations within the multimedia stream based upon the ranking.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the query includes a query word; and

the multimedia stream is identified by searching an annotation index having a plurality of query words each associated with one or more multimedia streams to locate the query word, a multimedia stream associated with the located query word being identified as the multimedia stream.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein:

the annotation index includes an indicator of a start time, an indicator of an end time of the multimedia stream associated with the located query word within the index.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein:

the locations relevant to the query are identified by an indicator of respective locations of an occurrence of the query word within the multimedia stream associated with the located query word within the index.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

scoring each of the identified locations;

wherein the relevance of each of the identified locations is ranked in accordance with the scoring.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the query includes one or more query words and each of the identified locations has an associated one of the one or more query words, and further comprising the steps of;

associating a weight with each of the query words; and

computing a weighted sum for the applicable identified location based upon the weight associated with the query word associated with the applicable location;

wherein the score of each of the identified locations corresponds to the weighted sum.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the weighted sum is computed to equal:

a product of the weight associated with the query word associated with the applicable location and a negative exponential weight corresponding to a distance between the query word associated with the applicable location and the query word occurring next in time in the multimedia stream.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein:

the negative exponential weight equals the distance between the query word associated with the applicable location and the query word occurring next in time in the multimedia stream divided by a value representing a distance weight.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the distance weight is settable.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the distance weight is at least 10 seconds and no more than 30 seconds.

11. A system for locating a particularly relevant position within a multimedia stream comprising:

a multimedia memory configured to store multimedia;

a processor configured to identify locations within a multimedia stream included in the stored multimedia which are relevant to a query, to rank the identified locations within the multimedia stream, and to determine a particularly relevant one of the identified locations within the multimedia stream based upon the ranking.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the query includes a query word and further comprising:

an index memory configured to store an annotation index having a plurality of query words and one or more locations associated with each of the query words, each of the locations indicating an occurrence of the associated query within an associated multimedia stream included in the stored multimedia;

wherein the processor is configured to search the index for the query word to identify the locations within the multimedia stream which are relevant to the query.

13. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein:

the processor is further configured to generate a score for each of the identified locations and to rank the relevance of each of the identified locations in accordance with the generated score for that identified location.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein:

each of the plurality of query words has an associated weight; and

the processor is further configured to compute a weighted sum for each of the identified locations based upon the weight associated with the query word associated with the applicable identified locations and to compute the score of the applicable identified locations using the weighted sum for the applicable identified location.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein:

the processor is further configured to compute the weighted sum as a product of the weight associated with the query word associated with the applicable identified location and a negative exponential weight corresponding to a distance between the query word associated with the applicable location and the query word occurring next in time in the multimedia stream.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein:

the processor is further configured to compute the negative exponential weight so as to equal the distance between the query word associated with the applicable identified location and the query word associated with the identified location occurring next in time in the multimedia stream divided by a value representing a distance weight.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

an input device configured to receive an input setting the distance weight.

18. The system recited in claim 17, wherein the distance weight is at least 10 seconds and no more than 30 seconds.

19. A system for locating a particularly relevant position within a multimedia steam comprising:

a communications network;

a plurality of first network devices, each interconnected to the network and configured to store multimedia;

a plurality of second network devices, each interconnectable to the network and configured to transmit a query word over the network;

a third network device interconnected to the network and including a index having a plurality of query words, each of the plurality of query words being associated with one or more locations indicative of an occurrence of the associated query word within an associated multimedia stream included in the stored multimedia, and configured to search for a query word transmitted by one of the plurality of second network devices to identify the locations of the occurrence of the transmitted query word within the associated multimedia stream, to generate a score for each of the identified locations and to rank the relevance of each of the identified locations in accordance with the generated score for that identified location.

20. The system as recited in 19, wherein:

each of the plurality of query words has an associated weight; and

the third network device is further configured to generate the score for each of the identified locations by computing a weighted sum as a product of the weight associated with the transmitted query word for the applicable identified location and a negative exponential weight equal to a distance between the applicable identified location and the identified location occurring next in time in the multimedia stream divided by a selectable value representing a distance weight.

21. An article of manufacture for locating a particularly relevant position within a multimedia steam, the article of manufacture comprising:

a computer readable storage medium; and

computer programming stored on the storage medium;

wherein the stored computer programming is configured to be readable from the computer readable storage medium by a computer and thereby cause the computer to operate so as to;

search an index for a received query word to identify locations indicative of an occurrence of the received query word within a multimedia stream, generate a score for each of the identified locations, and rank the relevance of each of the identified locations in accordance with the generated score for that identified location.

22. The article of manufacture as recited in 21, wherein each of the plurality of query words has an associated weight and the stored computer programming is further configured to be readable by the computer and thereby cause the computer to operate so as to:

generate the score for each of the identified locations by computing a weighted sum as a product of the weight associated with the received query word for the applicable identified location and a negative exponential weight equal to a distance between the applicable identified location and the identified location occurring next in time in the multimedia stream divided by a selectable value representing a distance weight.